Heartbroken Arrow

CHAPTER 6
FIGHTING FATE

Early in the morning.

Another gloomy day, low feathery gray clouds bearing down, suffucating the heart.

A light drizzle blew, fine, ice-cold drizzle.

Fan Kuzhu stood on the hill looking down on Peng Mansion. It wasn’t simply a mansion, more like a palatial compound, thirteen buildings grouped into something like a small city, six black-tile roofed buildings on each side and one three-storey stone brick building in the center, this one the most impressive. One look and you’d know this was the place where orders were issued, the center of Peng Mansion.

Every building was divided by a wide white, level granite walkway, and the main avenue ran straight down the center. All it needed was some pillars lining each side and a gateway arch and it would look like the road leading to the imperial palace. For a gang that dealt in donkey and horse transport to have a headquarters like this showed it was really something.

The fine rain drizzled on Fan Kuzhu’s hair and into his eyes. He was already soaked through, but he seemed unaware, so absorbed was he in those buildings packed in close together—the main mansion was cold and silent, but there were people within. So much love and hate, so much affection and resentment woven together, a tapestry of complicated emotions woven from the living. Inanimate objects are innocent; his imprecations ought to be focused on those living, breathing, yet heartless people!

Gray sky, gray earth, Fan Kuzhu’s gray figure slowly advanced upon the towering gates of Peng Mansion. As he neared, two men in waterproof oilskin coats sprang out from behind the gateposts, sabres raised blocking his way. Fan Kuzhu’s face was so calm it was nearly frozen stiff as he stopped in his tracks and quietly regarded the two men before him. The men looked at each other, then the taller, huskier one said, “What are you here for, friend?”

Fan Kuzhu wiped the rain from his cheeks and said in a low, gruff voice, “I have to trouble you to report that I wish to see Venerable Father Quan Shoutang.”

The men sized up Fan Kuzhu. They couldn’t help but be affected by Fan Kuzhu’s forlorn aura, but that forlorn aura in their rather careless eyes took on an air of one who was frustrated and downtrodden. The same tall, husky man said, “You want to see our venerable father? Can you tell us the reason why? Our venerable father is getting on in years and has a lot of things to see to each day. If your issue is nothing major, I can call on Steward Liu, maybe he can help you…”

Their tone made Fan Kuzhu out to be some vagrant down on his luck who had come to beg for assistance. Fan Kuzhu was not the least bit angered—he couldn’t muster the energy to quibble with these nobodies. Still calm, he said, “Gentlemenm, I think it would still be better if I saw Venerable Father Quan.”

The shorter of the two smiled faintly. “Excuse me for slighting you, friend, it doesn’t matter if you see Venerable Father Quan or not. Our establishment treats all those with difficulties the same according to our rules. We would never let a good friend leave empty-handed. You won’t get more coppers if you see Venerable Father Quan himself, and you won’t get fewer if you don’t see him, so friend you can rest at ease. This sort of thing our Steward Liu can handle—”

The more he spoke the more it became clear that he took Fan Kuzhu for some guy come to beg for some petty cash. Fan Kuzhu again wiped the rain from his brow and squeezed out a patient smile. “Gentlemen, there seems to be a slight misunderstanding between us. I don’t lack for cash, I certainly didn’t come here to borrow money. I certainly do have an important matter that must be delivered face-to-face with Venerable Father Quan. I must ask you to report, and I think Venerable Father Quan will no doubt receive me!”

“Oh”, said the tall, husky man and he once again scrutinized Fan Kuzhu. Then he grudgingly said, “You’re so sure that Venerable Father Quan will see you? Alright, state your name.”

“Fan Kuzhu…” he said in a low voice.

Those three words were spoken calmly, almost inaudible, but they were as three thunderclaps in the ears of the two men before him. Their faces sank and they took an involuntary step backward as they exclaimed in unison, “Fan Kuzhu!”

Blue veins bulged on the tall man’s forehead and his jaw tensed. He gasped for breath and cried, “The autum wind’s up, Old Nine, sound the cloud gong!”

The other one turned sharply, his back to Fan Kuzhu, and clear, resounding peals from the cloud gong sounded in a rapid, steady rhythm, reverberating throughout the thirteen compounds of Peng Mansion!

Quickly, people began moving, fast but calmly coming out and getting into position, following their usual procedure, very orderly, as if they had practiced and prepared for this moment in advance!

Several men came out from the front of the main three-storey mansion. From their quick, agile steps it was clear without a doubt that they were highly skilled.

Fan Kuzhu cupped a hand over his fist in salutation to the two guards who looked like they had seen a ghost and he squeezed out a thin smile. “Thank you, gentlemen…”

The two men high-tailed it out of there, Fan Kuzhu’s politeness making their shocked panic even more awkward and embarrassing.

* * *

The main hall was lavish, with heavy wood furnishings with large embroidered cushions and a huge rug on the floor. A pair of candles were placed on a long wooden table and silk curtains hung by the window, garishly red.

Fan Kuzhu sat upright, looking straight ahead in a big, heavy oversized armchair. He looked haggard and dejected in his soaked gray attire, looking even more wretched and downtrodden in this huge, lavish reception hall.

Opposite Fan Kuzhu sat a fat old man with a round, bald head and a ruddy complexion. He had thin eyebrows and narrow eyes, a big nose and wide mouth, and his double chins quivered even when he wasn’t speaking—

He was the leader of the Three Powers Gang in charge of the pack animal trade and transport for seven prefectures and sixty-three counties, Quan Shoutang.

Aside from Quan Shoutang and Fan Kuzhu, two other men stood behind their leader. One was short and stout with a fierce, ferocious face, and the other was around forty, fair-faced and refined. He looked like a teacher of some sort.

Quan Shoutang raised his teacup from the little table in a toast to his guest, and after he took a sip he smiled, his face looking like a huge, sonorous bronze bell. He spoke in a booming voice, “My dear brother Fan, I expected you would come in the next few days, but you got here fast. Was it a rough journey?”

Fan Kuzhu had not touched his teacup and had not the trace of a smile on his face as he said woodenly, “It was alright.”

Quan Shoutang chuckled. “Autumn wind and rain is the most vexing to a person. My dear Fan, you don’t look very happy?”

Truly cunning, keeping his thoughts to himself—Fan Kuzhu’s heart was frigid, his expression even more bleak and chilly. “My purpose in coming here, Venerable Father, I’m sure you can guess. I hope, Venerable Father, that you will uphold justice—”

Quan Shoutang sounded astonished, “Uphold justsice? Mt dear Fan, what justice am I to uphold?”

Clenching his teeth, Fan Kuzhu no longer willing to beat around the bush, he got right to the point, “To answer you, Venerable Father, my junior brother Tong Li and my wife Bai Feng have been hiding out at your place for a number of days. I make bold to beg you, Venerable Father, to bring the two of them out. This family business ought to be settled in private!”

Quan Shoutang was still all smiles. “So that’s what you’re here for. My dear Fan, I won’t pry into your dispute with them, I can only ask, what makes you so sure your junior brother and your wife are staying at my establishment?”

Fan Kuzhu closed his eyes. “I have my ways, anyway I’m sure of it, otherwise why would I charge in here and distubrb you, Venerable Father, for no reason?”

Quan Shoutang stroked his chin. “So you believe rumors?”

Fan Kuzhu said, “It’s no rumor, it’s a fact. Venerable Father, no living man will dupe a man on the verge of death; that would be a real lack of compassion. That living man will have no need to have and misgivings about a man on his deathbed. The words of a dead man must be the truth. Venerable Father, you are quite experienced and have seen much of the world, I’m sure you understand.”

Smiling none too happily, Quan Shoutang said, “If I were to tell you that they aren’t here, what then?”

Fan Kuzhu said calmly, “I would say I don’t believe you.”

Before Quan Shoutang could open his mouth, the chunky man behind him boomed like a clap of thunder, “How dare you, Fan Kuzhu, speak like that to Venerable Father!”

Fan Kuzhu didn’t bat an eye, just said simply, “I know you’re the second-in-command in the Three Powers Gang, ‘Iron Tiger’ Shangguan Biao, you don’t need to roar at me. If you’re in the mood, I will accompany you any time, any place!”

The ferocious muscles on Shangguan Biao’s face were taut as he spat out his words like exploding chestnuts, “Fan Kuzhu, you can scare others, but you don’t scare me. Right here, right now I will teach you a proper lesson!”

Fan Kuzhu looked straight ahead and said indifferently, “You’re asking for it, Shangguan Biao!”

The teacher-looking guy laughed, not angry at all. “Presumptuous, sure enough, Fan Kuzhu. But you’ve docked at the wrong pier. Who would let you run amok here at Peng Mansion?”

Fan Kuzhu curled his lips, “The manager of the Three Powers Gang perhaps cannot manage me. Han Jichang, if you want to manage me, I assure you it will be embarrassing for you!”

The manager sneered, “Utterly isolated, like a dog without its master, yet you still have the nerve to come here and be so bossy, shamelessly boasting. Fan Kuzhu, let’s wait and see if you still have a way out!”

Fan Kuzhu was unperturbed. “My misfortunes and wrongs were mostly the doing of you all. If you hadn’t added fuel to the flames in becoming an accomplice, then this awful disaster today would not have come about. How can I not repay your graciousness?”

Quan Shoutang’s face was frosty and his narrow eyes bulged. “Fan Kuzhu, you ought to watch your mouth. Don’t be hasty. I should warn you that my patience is limited!”

Fan Kuzhu said calmly, “I have no desire to offend you, Venerable Father, I only wish for you to give me an explanation. I’m sure you know, Venerable Father, that I will not stop until this matter is settled!”

Quan Shoutang was silent for a moment. “To be frank, they did stay here at my place a few days ago, but they have already left…”

Fan Kuzhu said, “Where did they go?”

Quan Shoutang said, “They are two able-bodied people, I didn’t tie them up and hold them here. How should I know where they went?”

Fan Kuzhu said coldly, “Venerable Father, you are an elder among the jianghu, advanced in years and virtue. Lying so casually in an attempt to hoodwink me like that, won’t that harm your spotless reputation?”

Quan Shoutang’s expression changed suddenly and he slapped the low table away and the teacups shattered on the floor. “What an audacious little so-and-so, who do you think you are? Do you know who you’re talking to? Fan Kuzhu, you’d better not disregard my kindness or you’ll be asking for it!”

Fan Kuzhu was unfazed. In a bone-chilling voice he said, “Venerable Father, what do you think I came to ‘Peng Mansion’ for? If I wanted to just swallow my anger and leave it at that, if I just wanted to see your face and hear your tall tales, I could have found a dark place and bashed my head against the wall and killed myself, why go through all this trouble? But Venerable Father, since I came here, I’ve never once thought of leaving!”

Quan Shoutang’s whole face was red, his double chins quivering. He stood up in a huff and rasped, “I gave you a way out, but you didn’t take it! Fan Kuzhu, you’re forcing me to the point I can’t tolerate it!”

Fan Kuzhu also stood, slowly, his face taking on a hard, forbidding look as he did so. He stared down Quan Shoutang’s wrath and in a cold voice said, “Venerable Father Quan, I don’t know why you want to cover for an unconscionable, backstabbing, wicked reprobate like Tong Li, and I really don’t get why you’d shield a loose, amoral woman like Bai Feng? You’re surely aware of their sinister tricks and despicable actions, yet you insist on showing them favor regardless of right and wrong. Venerable Father, your arbitrary actions will not only hurt your reputation, they will also implicate the safety of yourself and your family. Don’t you think that’s too heavy a price to pay?”

Quan Shoutang shouted, his bald head shining, face muscles taut, “Fan Kuzhu, don’t talk virtue and morality to me. I do what I want. I have my own view and no one has the right to interfere, nor does anyone dare to. Who are you, a nobody, to preach at me?

“If you still won’t give up, then no matter your skill or what you do, I can take it. I won’t hand over Tong Li and Bai Feng to you and that’s final. Fan Kuzhu, I’m not just shielding those two, I will shield them to the end!”

Fan Kuzhu said in a low voice, “If you say so, Venerable Father Quan.”

Quan Shoutang raised his voice, “That’s right, I say so.”

Fan Kuzhu said, “Even if it means bloodshed and loss of life, Venerable Father?”

Quan Shoutang exploded in maniacal laughter like thunder. “I’m 71 years old. Fan Kuzhu, you think I was a spoiled, pampered child, living in luxury my whole life? I’ve lived through bloodshed and death most of my life, I’ve led a ruthless life for decades. What’s one more time?”

Fan Kuzhu said, “Good, Venerable Father Quan. I will give you one more time. After this time, we’ll see if you’re still able to have another!”

From behind Quan Shoutang, “Iron Tiger” Shangguan Biao suddenly shot up and did a somersault in the air. Before he landed, a sheet of pallid light like a length of silk chopped down at the top of Fan Kuzhu’s head, coming at him with brutal force and sharp as anything!

There was nothing left to be said, and the situation was not looking good. Fan Kuzhu was brimming with murderous intent, and he did not intend to give any more leeway. As soon as Shangguan Biao moved, he leapt into the air. As the gleam of light just brushed past the tip of his nose, he shot straight up to the gold and red wood carvings on the ceiling of the main hall. In the twinkling of an eye he hunched his shoulders and flipped over, his feet kicking off the ceiling board, knocking off a sprinkle of dust as he shot back, fast, as if he were reliving the lightning speed of his youth!

The sabre chopped air and Shangguan Biao was just in the process of switching up his move.

Han Jichang took this moment to make his move. He moved three steps to the side and somehow his shiny mandarin duck rings were sweeping round in a bladed arc, rapid, quick, cutting across and interceptng the plummeting Fan Kuzhu!

Fan Kuzhu’s swift falling momentum didn’t change a smidge. Before anyone could blink, the ring light whirled, its cold prism dazzling. About to collide with the blade rings, Fan Kuzhu suddenly broke to the side—a sudden break that completely violated his intertial force. He threw an arcing spike behind his back, the gold arrow piercing the air. Then a sharp cry and Han Jichang dropped his rings and he clutched his hand to his chest and lurched toward a round-backed chair and plunked down, he and it overturning!

Shangguan Biao roared like a tiger, his Burmese sabre thrusting straight toward Fan Kuzhu’s back. But Fan Kuzhu neither ducked nor dodged, just slightly raised his left hand and the black cord abruptly rebounded, the end of the cord snapping like lightning and deflecting the Burmese sabre with a pow. The gold arrow cut across with a trace of tail-light. Shangguan Biao groaned and staggered backward, blood spilling down his ribs!

Fan Kuzhu fixed his eyes on the bleeding Shangguan Biao as if he had realized something. Now he knew why his opponent was called “Iron Tiger; Shangguan Biao possessed iron shirt hard-conditioning martial arts, and he had trained it to a high degree. Otherwise, that arrow stab would have penetrated through his ribs, and then how could he only have a flesh wound!

After checking on Han Jichang, Quan Shoutang turned straight around. His normally ruddy face was now flushed a shocking dark reddish purple. His voice quavered slightly, “Fan Kuzhu, I’ve seen a lot of cruel and merciless fellows, but I’ve never seen such a venomous, brutal super butcher like you. What you’ve done, you’ll have to abide by the Three Powers Gang oath and sacrifice your head for our brother!”

Fan Kuzhu said emotionlessly, “Han Jichang is a damn accomplice, even death is too good for him. He can’t escape his crime. As for my head, if you can take it I don’t mind to part with it!”

Quan Shoutang lowed like an ox and pointed at Fan Kuzhu, his eyes nearly bulging out of his sockets, “We won’t let you off! Even if the Three Powers Gang collapses and we’re all exterminated, we’re still first gonna gouge out your eyes and flay you alive and dismember you by slow slicing. You were out of your mind to make enemies with the Three Powers Gang, you addle-headed, deluded…”

With a faint shake of his head, Fan Kuzhu said with disdain, “Venerable Father Quan, what happened to your dignity, your bearing, your cultivation? Just a gang of low class ass drivers and horse whippers, boorish louts unfit to be seen in public. Calling you Venerable Father all these years really elevated you!”

He was so angry his heart and lungs nearly exploded and his veins nearly burst open. Quan Shoutang snarled, “The autumn wind is up, a bloody sabre rises—“

This was clearly a secret code to take action that they had decided on earlier. As soon as Quan Shoutang said that, every door, even the hidden ones, on all sides of the hall opened and sixteen big men wearing tight-fitting yellow outfits and wielding weapons, swarmed out. One look and Fan Kuzhu realized with a start that nearly all of the Eighteen Handlers of the Three Powers Gang were here!

“Iron Tiger” Shangguan Biao howled like he was crazed, and his Burmese sabre fluttered up and down as he charged forward. He yelled, “Brothers, avenge Steward Han…”

Fan Kuzhu didn’t retreat, but exploded forward. The Burmese sabre’s cold light was just about to slash into him when a black cord spread out in a weaving net—this net, formed of a single cord, was like a split-second shroud, slipping the tip of the sabre off to the side, and Shangguan Biao was knocked back over five paces!

One man in yellow rolled over on the ground, each hand holding a mountain-cleaving sabre, going all out to hack at Fan Kuzhu’s lower body. At the same time, three other yellow-clad men suddenly shot in from three different directions!

Shangguan Biao spun around on one foot and pounced again, Burmese sabre sweeping in waves of glimmering cold flames, just like a ball of ice smashed to pieces and spraying out, sweeping over in a flowing arch. He was really risking it all!

Fan Kuzhu suddenly leapt to the side, the cord like a live snake coiling around the mountain-cleaving sabres of the man rolling on the ground. Sideways in the air, he rotated back the other way and the mountain cleavers shot up and clanged into the ceiling, and in the instant they shot up the gold arrow glimmered back like a demonic curse and stabbed the man on the ground in the chest as he was leaping up!

Three guys bunched up, sabre qi smiting the air in ghastly cuts. Fan Kuzhu’s gold arrow splattering a gout of red blood, thrusting in an out, three gold flashes shot out dazzling, three times metal clanged, and the three ambushers tumbled back in three different directions as if they had been smacked by a huge, invisible hand!

The Burmese sabre’s cold lightning came down like rain, Fan Kuzhu’s black cord again interweaving a protective net—a red tassel like a malevolent spirit’s sneer suddenly appeared and brushed at him from behind at an inconceivable speed.

It was an expertly crafted pear-blossom wood1 red-tasseled spear, the spearhead sharp and glinting blue. Its sharp point was capable of penetrating muscle and cracking bone, and the owner of this red-tasseled spear was the head gourd-ladle2 of the Three Powers Gang, Quan Shoutang!

The spear came too quick, too urgently, at just the right time and aimed perfectly, so that by the time Fan Kuzhu realized the danger, the danger was already upon him. A the very instant the spear tip touched his flesh he inhaled and charged forward, the cord against his side turning and shooting out, shoulder blade spraying blood, and the red-tasseled spear suddenly flicked up high!

A yellow-clad handler3 thought he saw his chance to act and took a quick half step, a big sickle chopping down. Fan Kuzhu, crouched down and charging forward, didn’t even look but suddenly flitted two spans to the side, and as the big sickle chopped air, his gold arrow ran the handler through the throat.

Spear in hand quaking, Quan Shoutang’s anger surged like a mountain, his voice like a crashing gong, “Surround him and kill him!”

By the time Shangguan Biao pounced again like a ferocious tiger, Fan Kuzhu shot up like a huge soaring hawk and with incomparable force smashed through the openwork window and jumped out!

Quan Shoutang was right on his tail. He shouted, “Fan is hurt bad, he can’t run far. Men, after him quick!”

Ten or so Three Powers Gang handlers vied to be first, squeezing through the doors of the main hall that their Venerable Father had just ran out of, but they were shocked to see Fan Kuzhu standing firm all alone before the hall—it was just as Quan Shoutang had said, he really hadn’t run far!

Fan Kuzhu’s left shoulder was dark red, but he seemed not to notice, only quietly standing there bolt upright, one hand gripping the cord, the other hand grasping the gold arrow, looking cold and hard, like a stone statue.

The ten or so Three Powers Gang handlers shouted at each other, fanning out to surround him, and over a hundred mean clad in tight-fitting outfits surged forth from every passageway, forming a second encirclement.

In the center there was only one person, one focal point. Fan Kuzhu.

Quan Shoutang planted his spear butt-end on the ground, slanted, high-spirited, as if he’d forgotten that the victor had yet to be decided. “You really refuse to give up. Fan Kuzhu, I give you a way out, but you insist on kicking till your foot breaks. Now, even if you get on your knees and beg for mercy your life is forfeit. Fan, you think you hold the sky up all by yourself? Think again!”

The gold arrow in Fan Kuzhu’s hand swayed slightly. He looked up and said in a jerky voice, “Quan Shoutang, Venerable Father Quan, you won’t be able to take my head by using your tongue. What are you all waiting for?”

Quan Shoutang roared, “Attack!”

Again it was Shangguan Biao who dared to take the lead. He shot to the side, Burmese sabre chopping, but Fan Kuzhu moved with the momentum of the sabre and suddenly stuck his gold arrow out head on, forcing Shangguan Biao back.

As a result, the ten or so handlers of different levels attacked at once, rushing in one after the other.

Fan Kuzhu suddenly shot up and spun in the air, gold arrow thrusting out and slaughtering as he spun, transforming into a remarkable golden snake, a daunting dragon, becoming a star-shaped rainbow of light, spooling, enclosing, and in a split second three handlers fell down bloody. All this time, Fan Kuzhu didn’t touch the ground once!

Shangguan Biao kept trying to snipe at him, but kept missing every time, and as he was trying he noticed three of his brothers fall then and there. With things going like this it was more than a matter of losing face. This grievance was hard to swallow, and he got more and more angry as he went on, became more and more full of hate, his chest feeling so tight like it had been stuffed with something, to the point he felt he was about to explode!

Fan Kuzhu did an extremely beautiful tumble, grabbed his opponent’s neck, and pulled him up into the air, and as a clear snap of bone sounded, Shangguan Biao suddenly turned like the wind, sabre following, like a round pearl of light, abruptly careening toward Fan Kuzhu.

Eyes concentrated murder, dripping blood-red, Fan Kuzhu quickly pulled back, and as he raised his arm the gold arrow was cast out at an angle five steps to the right, but he didn’t have the arrowhead touch ground, but instead turned it around so that the butt end touched ground. Everyone who saw it was puzzled, and in that instant the gold arrow suddenly bounced and shot back the other way, slamming like a a flash of sparks from struck flint toward Shangguan Biao’s driving, radiant sabre ring.

A violent clanging ensued, the gold arrow knocked up toward the sky, Shangguan Biao staggering around unsteadily as four Three Powers Gang handlers rushed over to protect him. Fan Kuzhu’s cord wrapped around the gold arrow fletching and, quicker than words can tell, the arrow shaft turned over and shot back, a beam of resplendent phosphene light imprinting itself in the eyes of the onlookers, the gold arrow penetrating Shangguan Biao’s skull and nailing him to the ground!

A silence fell, the air frozen. In the midst of this deadlock, a dry sob suddenly erupted from Quan Shoutang’s mouth. His corpulent body leaping forward, red-tasseled spear shaking rapidly in a myriad red blossoms, recklessly charging toward Fan Kuzhu to stab him.

The cord pulled the gold arrow from the man’s skull and Fan Kuzhu flew a stave away.

He spun again, right foot stepping on one end of the cord, a fistful of cord in his left hand, the arrow already nocked—

No one saw the gold arrow fire. No one even perceived the split second ray of light.

A sharp gust of wind whizzed by, then the gold arrow and cord were seen, and the charging Quan Shoutang shouted as his spear left his hand and he fell down backward and sat down hard.

The gold arrow pierced the lower hem of Quan Shoutang’s rich, date-red robe, passed between his legs, punched through the butt of his outer robe and nailed itself deep into the granite slabstone pavement. Not a speck of Quan Shoutang’s flesh was wounded, but he was instead swatted to the ground like a huge fly.

The hundred-plus Three Powers Gang forces were every one of them terror-stricken, each of them frighened out of their wits. All held their breath, silent, looking like stunned birds. No one dared move a muscle, and everyone stopped up their mouths and didn’t say a word.

Life, in the end, was a very real issue, especially since everyone only had one…

Fan Kuzhu’s expression was empty, a somber look to him, not a trace of victor’s triumph.

He only muttered to himself, “Arrow of great compassion, ah… arrowed heartbreak…”

Quan Shoutang, nailed sitting to the ground, took some time before coming back to his senses.

This great dragonhead4 of the Three Powers Gang struggled to shake the gold arrow back and forth to dislodge it from the stone and from between his legs while he shouted hoarsely, “You useless good-for-nothing wineskin ricebags,5 just freeloading trash, why don’t you get over here and help me out? What are you all just standing there like idiots for? A powerful enemy is before us, surround him and kill him…”

The Three Powers Gang mates looked at each other, no one making a sound, wanting to obey the order but somehow not moving a muscle.

As they stood there hesitating, feeling awkward, Quan Shoutang cursed them again, out of breath, “People say you train an army for a thousand days to use it for an hour, but what raggedy bunch of chickens and dogs did I train? Every day I give you food to eat, money to spend, and in the end you’re just a motley bunch of rabble, it’s really enough to make me die of anger… Bastards, if you want to prove your worth, don’t forget about your brothers who gave their lives and the gang’s prestige. If you don’t kill Fan, then how will we get by in the future?”

The hundred-plus men’s morale was just getting roused a bit, still hesitating whether or not to risk fighting it out, when a figure shot in swiftly in front of the main doors of Peng Mansion.

As a result, a wave of excited cheers suddenly exploded. “Great Handler is back!”

“It sure is him, Great Handler really showed up in the nick of time…”

“Heaven has eyes, Great Handler is here…”

Fan Kuzhu didn’t turn around, didn’t shift his gaze, didn’t show a bit of feeling or reaction, as if he were an uninvolved bystander, a spectator watching a play. Everything seemed to be happening far away from him…

 

NOTES

梨花木, aka 黃梨花木, 黃花梨. Dalbergia odorifera, aka fragrant rosewood. Often used to make exquisite furniture.總瓢把子. Jianghu slang. It means chief or ringleader. Because 瓢, calabash gourd, is jianghu slang for a person’s head. To “pluck” 摘 a calabash means to cut someone’s head off. The extended meaning of head is leader. 把子, handle, is slang for gang members. Jianghu slang is weird. This is real slang, btw, not fiction.把頭. Literally handle head. I used this term “handler” earlier. Related to the gourd ladle, but this is a subordinate leader. The eighteen men who swarmed out are like deputy leaders, called “handlers” here.大龍頭. Translated literally. Like gourd ladle, it means leader, boss, #1, the head honcho.I translated this part twice so I could include the actual image while still making it make sense in English. “Wineskin” and “ricebag” mean useless and good-for-nothing. Someone who only eats and drinks but doesn’t do anything else.